ubeda a city of craft interest
DESCRIPTION
ÂTRANSCRIPT
of
Craftinterest
Citya
ÚBEDA IS CITY OF CRAFT INTEREST
A community stops being something just local when it is able to become a focus
which creates and spreads ideas and culture.
On December 21st, 2012, Ubeda was declared “Area of craft interest”
in Andalusia. The declaration ack-nowledges the relevance and singula-
rity of craft in Ubeda, as well as the diversity of trades and artistic quality
of the pieces, where tradition and new designs are perfectly combined.
The declaration represents a recognition for all those craftsmen who, throughout the history of the city, have had an important role in the World Heritage Town, it also acknowledges their great ethnological impact, where the resulting piece is as valuable as the techniques and skills that produce it. These have already become a consolidated tradition.
The handicrafts that subsists in Ubeda refers us to a large historical expe-
rience which in many cases turns them into heirs to a centenarian tradition. The links with this past
are acting as a key factor in the preservation of some of these
trades.
Artistic forge workshops, centena-rian potteries, stone sculpture or esparto (grass) works, coexist in the city. Nowadays these crafts are an essential part of the local identity, Its material heritage and popular wisdom, which has been connected for centuries to these activities, has been transmitted through a well-known lineage of craftsmen.
TRADITION
Within the process of cultural change in the last decades
of the 20th century that finis-hed with the popular ancient
uses, craft has adopted a new image with shapes and
designs closer to new times
and uses.
By using traditional techniques and materials, it looks for a new way of expression through a modern current iconography, presenting unique unrepeatable works, this adds to the features of the handcraft an extra cha-racter of authenticity, originality and exclusiveness, far from the mass production.
INNOVATION
Talking about craft is talking about a living heritage, recognized and appreciated by its own population, working as an identifying element of Ubeda in other cities and countries. Its importance lies in its continuity in history, adapting and transforming, but still remai-ning part of the cultural structure between the past and the new works in the present.
Visitors will be able to see pieces of pottery and ceramic, forge, jewellery, fallero cardboard, artistic stained glass windows, vegetal fiber, carpentry and woodwork, Mudejar coffered ceilings and stonework, from local workshops and firms that count on im-portant recognition from the craft world (Master Craftsman, National Prize of Craft, National Prize of Design …)
